1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera capable of pre-light emission for red-eye reduction and also self-timer photographing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cameras which perform pre-light emission for red-eye reduction prior to photographing, in order to prevent the so-called red-eye phenomenon, in which the eyes of the photographic subject are rendered red on the print by flash photographing, are known in the prior art. With this type of camera, when the release button is operated while the red-eye reducing mode is set, a pre-light emission is performed by an electronic flash device or a special pre-light emission device. After that, the main light emission of the electronic flash device is performed as the shutter is released. The pre-light emission thus causes the pupils of the person, i. e., the photographic subject, to contract, and flash photographing is performed in this state. Therefore, in the finished photograph, the red-eye phenomenon will be less conspicuous.
In a camera capable of self-timer photographing, when the self-timer mode is set, the shutter is released after a specific length of counter time has elapsed from the time point at which the release button was operated.
Since we can assume that the photographic subject during self-timer photographing is usually a person, it follows that when flash photographing is performed using the self-timer, a pre-light emission for red-eye reduction is required as well. However, the structure of self-timer cameras equipped with a red-eye reducing function in the prior art is such that the self-timer mode and the red-eye reducing mode are set independently of each other. Therefore, when performing flash photographing using the self-timer, the setting operations for the two modes described above must be performed separately. This presents a problem of low operability. In addition, there is a likelihood that the photographer will set the self-timer mode and forget to set the red-eye reducing mode. In that case, the photograph will exhibit the red-eye phenomenon.